I appreciate valuable feedback from the genius circle of friends of this forum to advice me how to resolve the following technical difficulty. As we all know that the cigarette light adapter in BMWs are designed not to switch off automatically even after completely shutting off the ignition. I understand that the currently followed design has some advantages for plug-in cell phone to the cigarette lighter adapter. However there are several useful accessories that need to be shut down automatically when the engine is off. This include radar detectors, hand-free cell phone assemblies, "smart mug" etc. I am aware of the expensive K40 built-in Radar Detector could resolve one of the problems but I am equally satisfied with the plug-in type I have in mine. Though there are several innovative AC/DC inverters and cigarette lighter adapter socket multipliers are available in the market, I am not able to find any compact cigarette lighter adapter splitter with an ON/OFF built-in switch. Every time, switching off the radar detectors and other accessories are a bit inconvenient. Your feedbacks are very much appreciated.

Originally posted by mr_indigo@Mar 6 2004, 11:39 PM i have been wondering this... and cant figure anything easy out.

maybe the only solution is taking the cd unit (or whatever you have), and then hooking up the cigarette lighter wires to it. it is a lot of work, but at least it would function

Hello there. Thanks for the response. Good idea. I thought about it. I checked with the local BMW Service whether they can help me to re-wire the connection to the cigarette lighter socket in such a way to break the circuit automatically when we shout off the engine. However, they were hesitant to get away from BMW specifications. They were worried about voiding some of the warranty when reconfigure manufacturer's circuit. That is where I am "shut-off"! Let us wait whether anyone else has alternate ideas.

why not just buy the adaptor or splitter of your choice and put your own inline switch there? This way you dont have to change anything about the car - you could even use a relay so that when the car shuts off, the adaptor automatically does.

If it were my car i would just hook up a relay to the cigarette lighter inline with something that comes on when the ignition is on. but i dont know how that affects warranty either.